Editor’s note: On Wednesday, the California Senate Health Committee passed Senate Bill 1381, authored by Sen. Noreen Evans, to label genetically engineered food sold in California, on a 5-2 vote.

I READ LABELS. With two growing boys, I am at the grocery store a lot, I am in the kitchen a lot, and I spend a lot of time scrutinizing labels. I am not a certified nutritionist, biologist, food industry chemist or a doctor — but I am an expert.

I am the one person who knows the history of those two boys like nobody else. I’ve been there every single day of their lives, and so I am uniquely qualified to tell you all about my younger son’s eczema and the digestive problems and temper tantrums he has when we don’t pay enough attention to his diet. You see, through trial and error, I’ve discovered what his body needs, and through research I’ve learned what genetically engineered food is all about.

I’ve decided that the pesticides that are either engineered into the crop, as is the case with Bt corn, or which have been repeatedly applied to and sucked up into the crop, as in the case of Roundup Ready soy, have no place in the sensitive body of my child. That is why we eat GMO-free and organic as part of a larger plan to eat healthy meals.

When I was growing up, my mom didn’t read labels — she didn’t have to. The food she fed us was pretty much the same as the food she’d eaten growing up. Corn and soybeans didn’t have pesticides in them in those days, and corn and soybeans weren’t in such a huge number of items at the grocery store, either.

Corn wasn’t registered as a chemical with the EPA back then as it is now. But the genetically engineered food today is new, it’s different, and I intend to avoid it for my family. So I’ve got to know where those GMOs are hiding. Just like I read labels for ingredients and nutritional information, I should be able to read labels to find out whether the ingredients have been genetically engineered.

It’s shocking to realize that in this country where we prize our freedoms so highly, this land of abundance, I cannot make an informed decision about the foods I feed to my own children. In 64 other countries moms can pick up dinner at the grocery store and know by reading a simple label whether that food had its origins in a laboratory, but not here — not yet, anyway.

California Senate Bill 1381 will change that. This bill will give California moms like me the power that is rightfully ours — the power to buy what we decide to buy and the ability to feed our children real food that we have chosen. The legislators of California have a responsibility to listen to the voices of constituents, and moms are telling them we want genetically engineered food labeled.

I have a right to know what’s in the food. It’s my responsibility to feed my children the best I can — it’s how I keep them strong and fuel their bodies. And it’s my right as an American to choose what I will buy.

Susan Lang is the stay-at-home wife and mother of two boys, 9 and 12. She has been an active volunteer at her children’s school, implementing a program designed to encourage media mindfulness for families. She also devoted much energy to California’s Proposition 37 campaign as the co-leader and events coordinator for the Sacramento-area grassroots effort.

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